The Opera Tattler

Reviews of Performances and their Audiences

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Category: Kent Nagano

  • Don Giovanni at Bayerische Staatsoper

    Our correspondent in Germany, Opernphrenologe, was recently in Munich. What follows is a lightly edited review of the new Don Giovanni production that recently opened at Bayerische Staatsoper.    * Notes * The premiere of Don Giovanni, directed by Stephan Kimmig, in München started out badly enough. The curtain opened to reveal a naked old…

  • Nagano conducts Berkeley Akademie

    * Notes * The Berkeley Akademie Ensemble gave a concert of Bach, Ives, and Beethoven last Sunday at the First Congregational Church. The evening began with a rather strange version of Bach's Concerto in the Italian style for solo harpsichord in F Major, BMV 971 arranged for chamber orchestra by Joachim F. W. Schneider. The first movement…

  • Céline Dion and Kent Nagano

    Céline Dion auditioned for Kent Nagano in Berlin last June, and apparently he recommended Renata Scotto as a voice teacher. Nagano and the Montréal Symphony Orchestra are to perform with Ms. Dion at some point, and the program is reportedly operatic. The Montréal Gazette Article | L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal

  • Hugh Wolff at Berkeley Symphony

    * Notes * Kent Nagano's 30th season as music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra will be his last, and the search for his replacement is on. Over this season and the next there will be a total of six guest conductors, one of which may emerge as the next music director. The first of…

  • Parsifal at Bayerische Staatsoper

    * Notes * Paper was the main motif in Peter Konwitschny’s production of Parsifal currently at Bayerische Staatsoper. The set was first hidden by a scrim covered with pieces of paper reading, in various languages, "Erlösung dem Erlöser," the last line of the opera. Act I featured a stage littered with white sheets of paper,…

  • Der Reine Tor

    A new production of Parsifal opened at Los Angeles Opera on Saturday, directed and designed by Robert Wilson of The Black Rider fame. The production itself is awful in every sense, being no less than pretentious, cold, and boring. The choreography involves a lot of lying on the ground, random angular arm movements that relate…